7 Beauty Lessons We've Learned From the First Ladies

For the most part, we Americans take our style, beauty, and fitness cues from the worlds of fashion and celebrity, not politics. But these six First Ladies—including Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Obama—have us pledging a new allegiance.

Perhaps you've heard—Michelle Obama has great arms. The buff First Lady sparked controversy (but more praise) when she wore sleeveless dresses to her husband's first Congressional address and in her official White House photo back in 2009. But why shouldn't she show off her toned arms? Between 1997 and 2009, Obama had worked out approximately 1,872 times, according to her trainer, focusing on her arms for 9 minutes each time.

These days she wakes up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. every day to work out before her kids wake up. "Being a healthy woman isn't about getting on a scale or measuring your waistline, and we can't afford to think that way," she wrote in Women's Health in 2012. "Instead, we need to start focusing on what matters—on how we feel, and how we feel about ourselves." If this picture of Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention is any indication, she's feeling pretty confident.

During the 1952 presidential campaign, Dwight D. Eisenhower's office got so many letters deriding his wife, Mamie's, supershort bangs that a form response letter had to be created. While the fairly hip Eisenhower was up on the latest trends­—she watched I Love Lucy, and her clothes and hats were cutting edge—her hairstyle was eerily etched in stone. She had first gotten short bangs in the 1920s, during a high point in her marriage, and for sentimental reasons she then kept them for decades. (The picture to the left is from Eisenhower's 1970 interview with Barbara Walters!) The sentiment is sweet—and good for her for not responding to bullies—but let's be honest: The same hairstyle for 50 years is so boring. And the short bangs do look a little juvenile. Ditto Hillary Clinton's puffy headbands, which were also criticized for being unsophisticated and yet kept popping up, like at the above White House event in 1997.

Yeah, yeah, change is good. But so is repeating a favorite. Mamie Eisenhower's signature pink also had some haters, but it flattered her skin tone and made her feel good. Eisenhower's custom-made baby pink inauguration dress, shown above, was embroidered with 2,000 rhinestones, and it brought down the ball. The shade was soon referred to as "Mamie pink." (You might recognize it: The shade is popular in bathrooms of any house last renovated in the 1950s.) All of Eisenhower's favorite things were pink—from her hair-dryer to a decorative fly swatter. Hey, if you're gonna go, go all the way.

As First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy quickly became an icon of style and beauty—and her reputation endures. But it's something that the well-dressed and well-coiffed Kennedy, shown here in her Georgetown home in 1960, did behind closed doors that we want to emulate most: She was seriously dedicated to her skin-care regimen. Kennedy was an early patient of Hungarian dermatologist Erno Laszlo and used his famous mud soap to keep her complexion glowing.

In 1993, a makeup artist did Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's makeup for the American Ballet Theater's Spring Gala twice. Days before the event, he showed her the look he had in mind (and the 63-year-old took notes!). In her later years, Onassis, shown here in New York City in 1992, even auditioned looks while wearing a robe that was the same color as her test dress, just to make sure the makeup colors suited it. That's above and beyond, but after looking at the perfect results, we'll never try a new look ten minutes before a party ever again.

Nancy Reagan had hairstylists, plural: one in Los Angeles, one in Washington, D.C., and one in New York City. But she clearly had a favorite: She invited L.A. stylist Julius Bengtsson to do her hair for her husband's inauguration, then brought him to Europe for Prince Charles's wedding (check out her look above) and a European economic summit soon after. Bengtsson was just as loyal: He came to D.C. once a month to touch up Reagan's color—and flew there on his own dime, using money from his $12,000-a-year consulting contract with Clairol. If you're good to your stylist, they'll be good to you, too.

When Francis Folsom Cleveland, 21, shown here in a mid-1880s daguerreotype, married bachelor president Grover Cleveland, 49, in the White House in 1886, the young beauty's image was quickly stolen and used in various beauty, clothing, and even undergarment advertisements. (They were dubbed "Frankie ads," a name she detested.) However much she resisted her celebrity, Cleveland's unique hairstyle was copied across the country, and when she was over the bustle, it suddenly disappeared from popular fashion. She never followed the status quo and even scandalized Washington with sleeveless gowns long before Michelle Obama: Cleveland liked that they showed off her shoulders.